A large number of diseases and disorders result from the dysfunction of a specific tissue or organ. A number of these diseases and disorders are currently treated by transplantation, e.g., heart transplantation for certain types of cardiac dysfunction, corneal transplantation for corneal endothelial cell dysfunction, stem cells for blood cancers, and so forth. However, transplantation procedures are invasive, have varying rates of success, and are not available for many types of injuries, diseases or disorders, in particular for a number of eye diseases, for example, including certain injuries or diseases of the cornea (e.g., endothelial dystrophies, stromal dystrophies, bullous keratopathy, etc.), certain injuries or diseases of retinal ganglion cells and the optic nerve (e.g., glaucoma, retinal artery or vein occlusions, ischemic optic neuropathies, other optic neuropathies, etc.), and certain diseases of retinal photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium (e.g., Leber's congenital amaurosis, retinitis pigmentosa, age-related macular degeneration, etc.) For ease of reference, various parts of the eye 10 are shown in FIG. 1, specifically, the cornea 1, pupil 2, iris 3, ciliary muscle 6, lens 4, retina 5, optic nerve 7 and anterior chamber 8 (which contains the aqueous humor), and vitreous cavity 9.
Although in many cases it would seem desirable to administer new “healthy” cells, for instance, by injection or infusion, simply introducing such cells into the eye generally does not work as they do not remain localized and adhere to or become incorporated into the target tissue of a patient. For example, healthy corneal endothelial cells are inefficiently incorporated into a patient's diseased or injured cornea when injected into the anterior chamber of the eye, with the majority of cells simply falling by gravity away from the cornea, rather than properly attaching to the cornea (see, e.g., Mimura et al., Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2005, 46(10):3637-44). Similarly, healthy retinal ganglion cells are not incorporated into the retina when injected into the vitreous cavity of the eye (see, e.g., U.S. 2011/0003003 to Goldberg et al., the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference).